The Haunted Teapot of Table Bay
Table Bay, Labrador, is located about 30 km east of Cartwright. The place draws its name from a flat-topped local landmark, Table Hill, which is visible for some distance out to sea. The head of Table Bay formerly had a small year-round population, dating back as early as 1820. In 1856 the population was recorded at 29.
The south side of the bay was once dotted with winter houses at places such as Lugs Cove, Otter Brook, Burdett's Brook, Leddies (or Luddy's) Brook, Big Bight and Old Cove, and there were also several small fishing stations on the north side, including Table Bay Point and Mullins Cove. According to D.W. Prowse's history of Newfoundland, Table Bay Point had the grand population of seven in 1891.
Historically, Table Bay was populated by families with names like Reeves, Macdonald, Pardy, Burdett, Heffler and Davis. In the twentieth century, the Davis family had a two storey house in Table Bay that was possessed of a well known reputation for being haunted.
The story of the Davis house was recorded for posterity in the pages of Them Days magazine in 1977, and from the account of the haunting, the house's ghosts were quite active. They were apparently fond of pulling chairs out from underneath people as they sat down, and were also quite a social lot, keeping visitors awake all night with the sound of ghostly talking in the kitchen.
While these activities are fairly common for phantoms, the Davis house was also home to some truly unusual paranormal activity. One winter, a couple by the name of Pardy were staying in the house while the Davis family wintered elsewhere.
One night, as Mrs. Pardy extinguished the lamp, the room was filled with a bright glowing light that shot across the floor like lightning. Much to the woman's amazement, the light was emanating from a rabbit bounding across the floor. The radiant rabbit hopped this way and that, then bolted across the room and vanished. When the hare disappeared, so did the light.
Another very strange event was witnessed by John Davis and Tommy Curl one night after brewing up a pot of tea in a old, big, blue enamel teapot. When they were finished Curl straightened up for the night, while Davis put the teapot, still with a bit of tea in it, back on the top of the stove.
No more than five minutes later, Davis headed for the stairs to the upper storey. The staircase was constructed without a handrail, but with banister rails or spindles that went from each step straight up to the ceiling.
As he began to ascend the stairs, Davis was startled to meet the teapot coming down. Somehow, the pot had moved from the top of the stove to the top of the stairs. Exactly how it did this was something of a mystery. The two men were the only ones present, and the teapot itself was too large to fit between the spindles.
The teapot bounced down over the steps, clattering as it fell. When it reached the bottom of the staircase, the teapot struck the floor with a bang, and the remaining tea splattered over the door. Neither man could figure out how the teapot had transported itself from one place to another.
Try as they might, they could not get the tea stain off the door.
Eventually, the constant strange occurrences became too much for the Davis family. They dismantled the house completely, moved the pieces to nearby Leddies Brook, and rebuilt it as it had been before. After that, the family lived in the house for years, and were never troubled by ghosts again.
Reprinted from "Haunted Shores: True Ghost Stories of Newfoundland and Labrador" by Dale Jarvis